The Gift
by darkdreamlover
Summary: Alice was use to long nights and short days. As a nurse at the ER she has seen her share of bad. Now instinct is what is going to keep you alive. Her name is Alice and this is now her life, to survive. Daryl/OC. (Rated M well because its the walking dead duh!)
1. New Age

Hi *waves*,

Alright so its Halloween and I had to put out part of the Daryl story I've been working on. Also a quick update on the others stories I have if you read them if not well you are going to know any ways, I am working on them. Some of them I slightly lost the fire I had but I have been inspired by some of all things more music that has put a new perspective on it. So fear not all shall be updated soon.

So for now, please enjoy the start of my Daryl story and please let me know what you think, if I don't see that people read any of my stories I don't worry to much about updating them.

love,

dark

* * *

Chp 1

New Age

* * *

There were days that Alice woke up and didn't enjoy heading to the ER and doing the long hours. She usually got stuck with the unpleasant of patients. However it was part of the job and she had just started it not more than 3 months ago and she had college loans to pay, had to get a new car, and should move out of her parents' house sometime soon. Alice was so overwhelmed with everything that she always tried to get everything done and set before she had to head off to work. One of her saving graces what that she didn't have a man to complicate life, which was by far already complicated.

However now Alice wished she had those nights again. She couldn't remember how long it has been since it started. Alice wished that she had her old worries back she would give anything.

Alice was at home when the first report came in about people not acting like people. She had to work a late shift at the hospital, when she was heading down to the morgue to look over a victim from strange bite wounds. She had worked with animals for her thesis project on the side for a friend so she became familiar with bite wounds.

"Alice baby, have I got a body for you" Colin said with a smile as he got up from his desk outside the morgue and Alice gave a small laugh.

"The answer is still no" Alice said as she put on some gloves and walked through the door with Colin.

"Can't blame a guy for trying" He said with a sheepish smile and walked over to the cooler "This guy died this morning around 10ish I believe"

"So almost 12 hours ago" Alice said as Colin opened the cooler and Alice pulled the sheet back revealing a horrendous bite wound on his neck "Dear god it tore out his artery, how he lived to get here"

"No idea" Colin said as he took a step back and watched Alice lean over to examine the wound and a smile appeared on his face.

"If you are looking at my ass I will tell Judith" Alice said not moving from looking at the wound as she heard shuffling and saw Colin was to the other side of the table.

"Sorry" Colin said with a laugh "I like looking at living people"

"Pervert" Alice said and shook her head as he took some tweezers and pulled out something from the wound "It's a tooth….a human tooth"

"What he got bite by a person?" Colin said as Alice leaned back and walked over to another table to put the tooth in a cup.

"It doesn't make sense, people don't have the jaw strength to cause this type of injury." Alice said as she heard movement behind her "Colin what did I tell…." She turned and saw the body was off the cooler table and Colin on the floor with his throat bleeding out.

Alice stumbled backwards as her mouth opened and nothing came out, the man stumbled towards her moaning with blood dripping down her face. Alice ran from the morgue and pulled an alarm and locking the door shut and heard pounding against the door. It was only the beginning.

Hours past and Alice had already fled the hospital after armed men came in shooting everyone in the hospitals and all the sick patients or injured people. Alice hid in a supply closet and waited for the chaos to end. She heard soldiers moving around and then silence for hours and she ventured out and saw bodies all over the place everyone was dead. Alice knew what she had to do, get out as fast as she could and get as far away from people as possible. Before Alice left she raided the medicine cabinets knowing that soon there would probably be nothing left with people not being able to make it anymore. She filled a garbage bag full and got out.

Alice didn't know how long it has been since it started. She was holed up in her family's old house out with an older horse. After she cleaned it up from the dead that she once knew. Alice spent all the time by herself finding things to be used as weapons, she found her dad's old gun and loaded it in case she ever had to use it but she knew that they were attracted to the sound so she went up in the attic and found a bow that her brother use to use during archery competitions in high school and old fashion bow. She taught herself how to make arrows, sharpen knives on rock and to make more bows incase the one she had ever failed her.

Another few weeks passed and Alice heard someone walking around the house and it made her nervous. So she took her rifle and crept towards a window. She heard him say he was a police officer but she heard that before and paid the price which resulted in an angry cut running down her right arm that had just begun to heal with new skin. She followed him with her rifle as he knocked and looked inside the house before going to the old truck outback and when he didn't find anything he started to look at the horse. Alice had enough so she quietly walked outside as the man started to talk to her told horse trying to halter it. She couldn't hear what he was saying but as soon as he got the lead around Alice walked over startling him but not the older horse.

"Are you planning on stealing my horse" Alice said as she trained her rifle on him and the man held up his hand that wasn't holding on to the horse.

"Easy I mean no harm" He said "I am a cop I'm not going to hurt you"

"I've heard that before" Alice said and cocked the gun "The last so call 'cop' that showed up around here tried to have his sticky fingers on me and now I got me a scar coming on my arm"

"Miss I promise I won't I am just trying to find my wife and son" He said with sincerity in his voice "Now could you please put down the rifle" Alice lowered the weapon and he let out a small smile "My names Rick, Rick Grimes, what's yours"

"I'm Alice Archer" Alice said "But just call me Alice, so what were you thinking of doing"

"Heading to Atlanta, but my car ran out of gas and I can't find any" Rick said and Alice nodded to him.

"I don't know much about Atlanta since I've barricaded myself in the house and couldn't stand to listen to the raid as they first started to talk about at all" Alice said as she followed Rick into the bar and began to saddle the horse.

"You shouldn't stay here" Rick said as he watched Alice saddle the horse "Come with me to Atlanta it, there has to be food and shelter, and other people."

"I don't know" Alice said as she finished saddling the horse and patted him and looked at Rick with worry.

"I will take care of you" Rick said "I promise I won't let anything happen to you, my honor as a cop"

"I guess it would be okay" Alice said as she turned and Rick saw the long wound starting at her shoulder on the left arm and going down to her elbow and noticed it was stitched up as best as it could be "I can help you look for your wife and son" and Rick nodded and she notice he was looking at her arm "I use to be an ER nurse"

"Well that will come in handy then in case something happens" Rick said with a smile "Why don't you got get your things and I will get what I need out of the car, met back in 10 minutes"

"Okay" Alice said and headed back towards the house.

Alice went up to the room and pulled out her old school backpack and began to pack an extra set of clothes. She had on a white tank top and jeans and grabbed an extra pair of each incase as well as a long sleeve shirt for when the weather would turn cold. She gathered all the medicine she took and a few other supplies that included some hickory nuts, extra food and water. She put her bow on her back and took a crowbar, and a hammer along with a machete that she found out back in the tool supply. She fit most of it in her backpack and soon headed out of the house to see Rick with a bag full of guns ready to go.

"We can both fit on him no problem" Alice said as Rick got on the horse first and he helped her get behind him where she held on to his shoulder and waist and the gun bag rested between them.

"Alright now, lets go slow I haven't done this in years" Rick said and Alice let out a small laugh as she felt him tense up as the horse started to walk then took off in a run "WO Wow o easy boy easy boy"

Alice kept a laugh inside as she held on to Rick and the horse kept up his running pace. Hours passed and Alice never realized that she wasn't too far from Atlanta. When they arrived Alice's jaw dropped, there were cars on the other side of the highway burnt and abandoned, and Rick eased on the horse as Alice looked on and her grip got slightly tighter on Rick.

"Rick" Alice whispered as they drew closer to the city "I don't like this"

"I know" Rick said as they walked over the bridge covering the train tracks and entered the city and the horse began to get more uncomfortable so they headed left.

As they traveled they saw more abandoned cars and saw no signs of life as they rode down the street. They passed a bus that had dead people inside and Alice noticed that they started to get up probably because they smelt them and they ended up near a tank.

"Rick" Alice said and pointed to the crows eating a solider on the tank's gun.

"Don't look" Rick said as Alice turned her head and Rick kept moving on the street and then he suddenly stopped and started to look around. "A helicopter" and Alice just stared at him but soon they both saw the reflection on one of the buildings before it disappeared and Rick took off in the direction of where it went only to run into a city street filled with the walking dead.

The horse reared up and Alice gripped on tightly to stay on the horse as they reached the tank only to find more of them. He reared one more time and Alice fell off the back followed by Rick and they both lost their bags. Alice was freaking out from all the walkers surrounding them and Rick grabbed her and they crawled underneath the tank only to have them follow them. Rick started to shoot and more kept coming. Alice looked up and noticed an opening in the tank and crawled up followed by Rick. He shut the door and they both crawled towards the back where they were taking deep breaths. And Ricked looked to the side and noticed a dead solider next to them and took his gun and Alice let out a small scream as she noticed he started to move and then Rick shot it in the tank. Alice had been on the ground and now was holding her ears in pain along with Rick, the sound dazing them and then Alice noticed Rick looking at something and saw him get up and look outside the top of the tank and he fell back in.

"What is it Rick" Alice said as she started to get her barring around her again.

"They are surrounding the tank" Rick said and Alice's face dropped and she watched Rick put up his gun and looked at how many bullets were left and Alice held in a cry.

Suddenly static was heard and Alice and Rick looked at the CB radio inside.

"Hey you dumbasses, in the tank. You guys cozy in there" the voice said and Alice looked at Rick who looked at the radio.

"Rick" Alice said with a smile on her face "Someone is alive out there" and they keot hearing banging on the outside of the tank.

"Hey you alive in there" the voice said and Rick went to get up but hit his head on a bar in the tank and Alice held in a laugh as he grabbed the radio.

"Hello? Hello?" Rick said into the radio.

"There you are" the voice said and it sounded relived "You had me wondering"

"Where are you? Are you outside? Can you see us right now?" Rick said desperately.

"Yea I can see you, you guys are surrounded by walkers" he said "That's the bad news"

"Any good news?" Rick said.

"No" he replied.

"Listen" Rick started as Alice crawled over to him to hear better "Whoever you are I don't mind telling you I am alittle concerned in here"

"Oh man you should see from over here youd be having a major freak out" he replied and Alice hung her head.

"Well I am already there" Alice replied and looked at Rick who gave her a grim smile.

"Got any advice for me?" Rick asked as his face began to show more worry.

"Yea id say make a run for it" he replied and Alice let out a strained laughed.

"He's kidding right" Alice looked at Rick and he looked at her.

"That's it make a run for it" Rick said with a disbelieving voice.

"It doesn't sound that crazy, you got eyes on the outside here" he said "There are still some on the tank but most of them went to join the feeding frenzy where the horse went down, you with me so far?"

"So far" Rick said and looked at Alice again.

"Okay the street on the other side of the tank is less crowded" he said "You move now while they are distracted you stand a chance. You got ammo?"

"In the duffle bag I dropped out there is guns can I get to i?" Rick said.

"Forget the bag ok" he said "It's not an option what do you have on you?"

"Hang on" Rick said and dropped the radio as he and Alice looked around "What do you got Alice?"

"I got my machete still" Alice said and helped Rick look around the tank and he found a grenade. "Umm why don't you wait to use that incase of extreme emergency" Rick nodded and put it in his pocket and went back to his gun and checked it.

"I got a Beretta with one clip 15 rounds and she has a machete" Rick said.

"Make them count" he said "Jump off the right side of the tank and keep going, there is an alley of the street maybe 50 yards be there"

"Hey what's your name" Rick asked and Alice shook her head at Rick.

"Have you've been listening your running out of time" he said and Rick dropped the radio and picked up the shovel and he headed towards the top of the tank.

"Ready Alice" Rick said as he looked towards Alice and she nodded her head and clutched her machete and Rick opened the top part of the tank and hit a walker with a shovel before they both jumped off the tank.

Rick started to shoot some of the walkers that were in their way and Alice hit a few with her machete before they neared the alleyway. Rick aimed to take another shot but stopped when he realized it was the guy.

"Wooah not dead" he said and turned "Come on Come on faster" they ran after him and kept up as they neared a latter.

Rick got behind Alice and allowed her to climb up after the guy and Rick soon followed them up the yellow latter. Once they reached the top Alice leaned against the rail and took in a few deep breathes.

"Nice moves there Clint Eastwood, you the sheriff riding into town to clean it up" he said looking at Rick and Alice let out a small laugh.

"Wasn't my intention" Rick replied.

"Yea whatever yeeha" he replied "Your still a dumbass"

"Rick, thanks" Rick said and held out his hand "That's Alice"

"Glenn, your welcome" Glenn said as they shook hands and turned to Alice and then they all heard some noise "oh no" the walkers were trying to climb the latter and they looked and saw another one "Well at least the fall will kill us, I a glass half full kind of guy"

"I hate heights" Alice said as she climbed the latter trying not to look down as they reached the top and began to run once again across the roof "Did you block the alley?"

"Someone did" Glenn said "Probably when the city was overrun, not many geeks can get through"

"Back at the tank why did you stick your neck out for us" Rick said as Glenn opened something on the roof.

"Foolish naive hope, that if I am ever that far up shit creek that someone might do the same for me" Glenn said as he got in and started to climb down "Guess I am a bigger dumbass than you"

"Could be" Alice said and Rick gave her a look as she got in after Glenn and started down the latter followed by Rick who closed the top and they finished and went down more stairs as Glenn took a radio.

"I'm back with guests got four geeks in the alley" Glenn said as they stopped and waited and a door opened and 2 guys came out with bats and smashed the walkers in the head leaving room for them to run inside and the door was closed.

Once they got inside Rick was grabbed by a women holding a gun to him.

"Son of a bitch I aught to kill you" she said and Alice then shoved her aside and glared at the women.

"Andrea back off" Morales said as he started to take of their vests.

"We are dead because of these stupid assholes" she said and still had the gun pointed at them.

"Andrea I said back the hell off" Morales said again getting closer while Glenn looked on slightly scared and Alice had her hand on her machete "Well pull the trigger" she then dropped the gun and Alice continued to glare at her. "We're dead all of us because of you"

Alice didn't listen much to what Morales was saying to Rick as they walked down a corridor because she had her eyes on Andrea. Alice did not like her one bit, something about it made Alice want to either punch her or bitch slap the women. They stopped at the entrance and Alice could see the glass doors covered by walkers and they all hurried off away from the doors.

"The hell were you doing out there any ways" Andrea said.

"Trying to flag a helicopter" Rick replied.

"Helicopter man that's crap there ain't no damn helicopter" T-Dog said.

"I saw it took it was there" Alice said

"T-Dog try to signal the others" Glenn said as he fiddled with the radio.

"Got no signal maybe the roof?" he said and they all heard a shot.

"Oh got was that Dixon" Andrea said and they all ran to head to the roof.

"Damn it Merle" Morales said

Once they got there Alice noticed a man that she would call a redneck, well more of a racists bastard called Merle. She got a few of them in the ER for hunting accidents and bar fights and she knew most of them were assholes but in reality were too bad compared to some other people. Alice had zoned out and realized now that Merle had a gun to T-Dog and Alice scolded herself for not paying attention to what was going on.

Suddenly Rick took the rifle Merle had and hit him across the face causing him to fall to the ground. Alice mad a sound of protest because she knew that it could cause him to break his jaw, since she had seen a few cases of it. Rick then handcuffed him to the pipe running along the roof and Alice let out a frustrated sigh.

"Rick you can't leave him cuffed to the pipe" Alice said.

"Alice you stay here with T-Dog" Rick said "In case something happens"

"What do you mean" Andrea said

"I'm an ER nurse" Alice said to Andrea in the same tone that Andrea gave them before "It would be good to not give him heat exhaustion especially in the sun."

Soon T-Dog and Alice were alone with Merle, and truthfully Alice didn't mind to much since she didn't have to try and figure out a way to get past the walkers.

"Come on man let me go" Merle said as T-Dog just looked at him "There aint no reason we can parlay and work together as long as there is mutual gain involved, so about that hacksaw" he then smiled at them both.

"I guess you want me to get that rifle took so you can shoot that cop when he comes back up huh" he replied.

"Hey you sweet cheeks how about you letting me go" Merle said and turned his attention to Alice and gave her a smile.

"My aren't you trying to be the charmer" Alice replied with a laugh.

Soon Rick came up saying that he needed T-Dog for something and Alice nodded and stayed with Merle to keep an eye on him.

"So sweet cheeks just you and me up here alone" Merle said and Alice laughed again.

"I'm sorry Merle I don't have the keys" Alice said

"Aww come on baby don't be like that" Merle said as they heard a rumbled and both of them looked up.

"Rain" Alice said as it started to downpour and she was thanking the gods her tank top though white had double layers so it wouldn't show through.

"Such a shame that you are wearing a white shirt" Merle said with a smile.

"Sorry to disappoint Merle but my shirt is not going to show anything, it has double layers" Alice said.

"Damn" he replied and they sat there in the rain and it started to stop.

Alice thinking that it had been long enough got up and was going to give Merle the hacksaw at least it would give him something to do and her something to watch. But suddenly someone came running up and Alice didn't get a chance to see who it was before she got hit on the back of the head and fell to the floor like a brick.

The next time Alice opened her eyes she was in a truck with a massive headache. Her put her hands to her head and looked around.

"Who the hell hit me?" Alice said and no one looked at her "Seriously what the fuck"

"It was an accident" T-Dog said and Alice just glared at him and realized something.

"Where Merle?" she asked and no one wanted to answer her "Son of a bitch you guys left him"

"I dropped the key" T-Dog said and Alice just shook her head.

"That's cruel" she replied as the truck came to a stop and they all started to get out.

Alice went towards the side of the truck towards the driver's side and smiled at Rick.

"Hey come on lets go see the new people" she said and Rick nodded

"Hey helicopter boy come out" Morales said and Rick got out of the truck with Alice behind him.

Soon Alice looked and noticed Rick was looking at a guy that had curly hair and was wearing a shotgun and then he saw a women and a kid. His family, Alice thought and a smile made its way to her face as Rick moved forward and Carl came running to him.

"Dad Dad!" Carl screamed and Alice smiled as he bent down to hug his son and they fell to the ground and he walked over to Lori and she moved and hugged him as well.

Alice was happy that even after the crap they went through in Atlanta that Rick was able to find his family. Alice looked over to who she guessed was Shane from Rick telling her about him and noticed something in his eyes. Something that unsettled her as she studied him, she then noticed look at Shane with something unexplainable in her eyes and something clicked in Alice's brain as her eyes went back to Shane and she saw it again. Shane was not to be trusted.


	2. Urgency

Chp 2

Urgency

* * *

Night came quick and soon Alice sat around a few with everyone, she sat next to Rick, Lori and Carl and she was directly across from Shane. Alice was happy to finally see and talk with other people that were around and not just talking to herself.

"Disorientated" Rick said "That's the word to describe it" Disorientated, fear but disorientated comes closest."

"Words sometimes can't fit" Dale said "Sometimes they fall short"

"I felt like I was ripped out of my life and put somewhere else. For a while I thought I was trapped was in a coma or a dream something that I might not wake up…forever"

"Mom said you died" Carl said as he looked up to Rick.

"She had every reason to believe that, don't you ever doubt it" Rick said.

"When things started to get really bad, they told me at the hospital that were gonna med-evack you and the other patients to Atlanta but that never happened" Lori said as she played with Carl's hair.

"I'm not surprised after Atlanta failed" Rick said and Lori nodded "And by the look of that hospital it got over run"

"But looks don't deceive" Shane said "I barely got them out"

"I can't tell you how grateful I am to you Shane" Rick said "Can't begin to express it"

"It's where words fall short again" Dale said with a smile and Alice smiled at Dale growing to like the old man more.

Alice heard a noise and she turned her head to see a guy name Ed and noticed Shane started to talk to him. She excused herself to the tent that she set up a little ways into the bushes while everyone stayed talking. That night Alice didn't have that good of a sleep remembering that Merle was still chained to the roof and for being a bit of an asshole she hoped he survived.

The next morning Alice had headed off into the woods with her machete around her waist to collect some more herbs that she remembered were good for food and in case anyone got sick. As she was heading back she saw Jacqui running back with the kids and almost every guy in the camp running towards the sound.

"You guys alright" Alice said as she knelt down to Carl who was hugging his mom and turned to Sophie "Any scratches on them"

"No I don't see anything" Jacqui said and Alice let out a sigh of relief.

"Good" She said and then followed them back to camp as the guys took care of the walker. She went to the back of the RV and put down her extra shirt that held the herbs and other things she collected.

"Merle!" a voice said and Alice stuck her head around the RV to see a man walking up holding a crossbow. "Merle!...get your ass out here got us some squirrels"

"That must be Daryl" Alice said to herself remembering during her and Merle convo on the roof he had a brother. She then stood up and watched him put his stuff down while still holding the squirrels.

"Daryl slow up a bit I need to talk to you" Shane said as Daryl slowed down and stooped for Shane to catch up.

"Bout what" Daryl said as Shane reached him and slightly walked past.

"Merle, there is a problem in Atlanta" Shane said and then looked back at Daryl and soon everyone was looking at Daryl and Alice wanted to smack herself at how obvious everyone was being.

"Dead?" Daryl said as he started to walk around.

"Not sure" Shane said.

"He either is or he isn't" Daryl said as Rick approached him.

"There is no easy way to say this" Rick said.

"Who are you?" Daryl said.

"Rick Grimes" he said.

"You got something you want to tell me" Daryl said and took a step closer to Rick and Alice took a step closer as well to make sure no one was going to get hurt.

"Your brother was a danger to us all" Rick said "So I handcuffed him on a roof to a piece of metal, he's still there"

"Hold on let me process this" Daryl said as he wiped his face and took a few steps back and then faced Rick "You saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof, and you left him there!"

Alice could hear something in Daryl's voice that made her heart ache, he had every right to be upset and pissed off after all Merle was sitting bait for any walker that could make it up there.

"Yea" Rick said as he turned his head and couldn't look at Daryl, and Daryl then threw his squirrels at Rick but Shane then body slammed into Daryl sending him to the ground where he pulled out a knife.

"Hey" T-Dog said as Rick and Shane were watching Daryl.

"Watch the knife" Shane said and soon Shane had him in a sleeper hold.

"Best let me go" Daryl said as Alice started to head over to where Shane was holding Daryl.

"Nahh I think it's better if I don't" Shane replied as he got Daryl to his knees.

"Chokehold is illegal" Daryl said.

"Hey file a complaint" Shane said. "Come on now I can keep this up all day"

"Hey let him go!" Alice said getting close to Shane "You can hurt him"

"What are you a nurse" Shane said as he glared at Alice not expecting her to actually be one.

"You better fucking believe it" Alice said and glared at Shane "Let him go Shane he has the right to be upset" and she turned to Rick who kneeled down to Daryl who was struggling against Shane.

"Now I would like to have a nice calm conversation" Rick said "Think you can manage that?"

Shane then let him got and he leaned on his elbow regaining his breathe and Alice gave Shane a death glare.

"Your brother does not work and play well with others" Rick said to Daryl who was still breathing heavy and it was starting to worry Alice a little bit.

"It's not Rick's fault" T-Dog said and everyone looked at him "I had the key I dropped it"

"Did you pick it up" Daryl asked.

"I dropped it in a drain" he said.

"Your fucking kidding me" Alice said to T-Dog and Daryl just dropped his head.

"You didn't know" Andrea said.

"No he knocked me out" Alice said as Daryl got to his feet.

"It that is supposed to make me feel better it don't" Daryl said as he started to walk away.

"Maybe this will, the door to the roof I chained it so the geeks couldn't get at him" T-Dog said "With a padlock"

"That's got to account for something" Rick said.

"Hell with all of yall" Daryl said and Alice could hear his voice starting to break. "Tell me where he is so I can go and get him"

"He'll show you ain't that right" Lori said as she looked at Rick.

"I'm going back" Rick said as Daryl walked off without his knife and Alice walked over and picked it up.

After some time Daryl waited near the truck and Alice walked up towards him.

"Who the hell are you" Daryl said as Alice handed out his knife and he took it.

"Alice" she said "I'm also going with you to get your brother in case he needs some help"

"You were there" Daryl said and Alice nodded.

"But I got knocked out as I was going to help Merle don't remember anything after that till I woke up in the truck" Alice said as she hopped in the back and sat down as she adjusted her machete.

Soon they arrived in the city and headed out towards where Merle was stuck on the roof. Once T-Dog had cut the lock they ran on the roof.

"Merle!" Daryl yelled as they ran to where he was chained.

"Dear god" Alice said to herself.

All that remained was a bloodied hacksaw, a hand, blood and the hand cuffs. Merle cut his hand off. Daryl was starting to breathe heavy again and soon he had his crossbow in T-Dog's face and Rick automatically pointed his gun at Daryl.

"I won't hesitate I don't care if every walker in the city hears it" Rick said.

"Put the weapons down this isn't helping anyone" Alice said as she put a hand on Daryl's shoulder and a hand on Rick's hand and soon Daryl dropped his weapon and Rick lowered his gun.

"You got a dude rag or something" Daryl said looking at T-Dog and he pulled one out of his pocket and Daryl took it and bent down and picked up Merle's hand "Looks like he sawed it off, aint that a bitch" he then stood up with it and put it in to Glenn's backpack and Alice almost laughed at the look on his face.

"His must have used a tourniquet, his belt" Daryl said "Be much more blood if he didn't" he then started to follow the blood trail and without looking back at the rest Alice followed him and soon the others followed.

"Merle you in here" Daryl said as he raised his crossbow and walked down the stairs and Alice took out her machete.

They were walking through offices and hallways and Daryl took out a few walkers as they continued to search for Merle.

"Had enough in him to take out these two son of a bitches" Daryl said "One handed"

"That's a good sign" Alice said "and bad"

"Toughest asshole I ever met my brother" Daryl said as he re-strung his crossbow "That man could crap out nails"

"Any man can pass out from blood loss" Rick said and Alice made a noise. "No matter how tuff he is"

"Negative aren't we Rick" Alice said as they kept searching.

"Merle" Daryl said.

"Quiet we aren't alone here" Rick said as Alice walked into the room followed by Daryl.

"He sealed his own hand" Alice said seeing the burnt flesh.

"See told you Merle was tough, nobody can kill Merle but Merle" Daryl said.

"He still has lost a lot of blood" Rick said as he put the iron down.

"Yea didn't stop him from busting out of this death trap" Daryl said as he walked over to a window.

"He left the building why the hell would he do that" Glenn said.

"Why wouldn't he" Daryl said "Merle's alone as far as he knows, he's surviving"

"You call that surviving, wondering around the streets maybe passing out" T-Dog said "What are his odds out there"

"No worse than being handcuffed and left to rot by you sorry pricks" Daryl said and no one could argue against that and Daryl looked at Rick "You couldn't kill him and your worried about some dumb dead bastard"

"What about 1000 undead bastards" Rick said "You got the full story"

"If you're taking tally, do what you want, we go get him" Daryl said and started to walk put Rick put his hand up.

"Daryl wait" Rick said and Daryl took a step back.

"Keep your hands off me" Daryl said loudly.

"Shhhh" Glenn said

"You can't stop me" Daryl said.

"I don't blame you he's family I get that, I went through hell to find mine I know exactly how you feel, he couldn't have gotten far with that injury we can check a few blocks around but only if we keep a level head" Rick said.

"I can do that" Daryl said starring right at Rick.

"But only if we get those guns first" T-Dog said "I'm not good at going on the street with just my good intentions okay"

"But that would show you really care" Alice said and T-Dog just starred at her "What, also I want to get my bag"

"I will go" Glenn said and Alice starred at him "with Alice"

"You guys aren't going alone" Rick said.

"Even I think it's a bad idea and I don't even like you much" Daryl said and Glenn let out a sigh.

"It's a good idea okay" Glenn said "You just hear me out, we go out there in a group we are smoked and draw attention. We I go with just Alice she moves as fast as I do" with everyone not looking convinced Glenn tired again "Look here is the tank 5 blocks from where we were, and there is the bag of gun and this is the alley I dragged you guys into" he was showing them on the floor with some paper and paper clips "This is where Daryl and us will go"

"Why me" Daryl said.

"Your crossbow is quieter than his gun and Alice can't use her machete while we try and run for the guns and her bag" Glenn said "While Daryl waits here in the alley, we will run down the street and grab the bags."

"Where would we put ourselves" Rick said.

"You and T-Dog would be here" Glenn said.

"Two blocks away why" Rick said.

"We might not be able to come back the same way" Glenn said "Walkers might cut us off, if that happens we won't go back to Daryl, we'd go forward instead all the way around the alley to where you guys are. Whatever direction we go, we have you guys in both places to cover us"

"Afterwards we will all meet back here" Glenn said.

"Hey kid what you do before all of this" Daryl said.

"Delivered pizza's why" Glenn asked and everyone just looked at them.

"Let's go" Alice said and soon they were off and heading down the same ladder that she was once running frantically up and heading down the alleyway.

"You got some balls for a china man" Daryl said

"I'm Korean" Glenn said as Alice and him took off their jackets and Daryl took her machete and tied it to his belt.

"Whatever" Daryl said and Alice held in a laugh as Glenn started to head out and Alice followed.

Soon they were both running on the street past walkers and hopped over some sand bags and Glenn grabbed the gun bag and Alice grabbed on to her backpack. She started back and notice Glenn turned around and grab the police hat and she stared at Glenn as they started to run back and Alice heard some yelling and they arrived back in the alley to see two guys hitting Daryl. Alice threw her bag behind the dumpster and ran at one guy jumping on his back and pounding into his face. The guy threw Alice off and she hit her head on the side of the building dazed as they noticed Glenn.

"Hey that's the bag get it" they said and ran at Glenn and started to hit him and steal the bag.

Daryl then shot one guy in the ass causing him to drop the bag and they took Glenn in a car before Daryl could run after them he ran back to the guy and punched him.

"Hey stop" Rick said.

"They took Glenn I am going to stomp him and his friends ass" Daryl said.

"Hey we are cut off" T-Dog said as he pulled the guy and Rick picked his guns and his hat.

"Get to the latter" Rick said "Daryl help Alice"

"Hey come on" Daryl said as he grabbed on to Alice's arm and noticed she swayed before pulling her along behind him towards the latter "Go" he pushed Alice in front of him and kept pushing her up the latter since she was going slow. "Hey"

"Yea" Alice said as she brought her hand to her head as they walked on the roof.

"I got your bag" Daryl said and handed Alice her bag and she smiled.

"Thanks Daryl" Alice said as they headed back to the room where they were before with Glenn.

"Those men you were with, we need to know where they are headed" Rick said to the kid that was sitting in the chair.

Alice was against the wall resting her aching head as she kept mild attention to what they were saying.

"I aint telling you nothing" the kid said.

"Jesus hell what the hell happened back there" T-Dog said.

"Told you this little terd and his douchebag friends came out of nowhere and jumped me" Daryl said.

"It's true" Alice said "I then jumped on one"

"You're the one who jumped me" the kid said and Alice wanted to throw something at the kid. "Screaming about how he is trying to find his brother"

"They took Glenn they could have taken Merle too" Daryl said.

"Merle what kind of hick name is that" the kid said and Alice wanted to slap the kid. "Wouldn't name my dog Merle" Daryl then went to kick the kid and Rick stopped him.

"Damnit Daryl back off" Rick said as Daryl walked over to Glenn's bag and pulled out Merle hand.

"Want to see what happened to the last guy that pissed me off" Daryl said and started to un-wrap the hand and threw it in the kids lap causing him to freak out and Daryl went over to the kid "Start with the feet this time"

Rick then pulled Daryl off the kid "Maybe the one who took our friend maybe we can talk to him and work things out" Rick said and soon they were outside and in front of a different building.

"You ready for this" Rick asked T-Dog who nodded and took the bag of gun someplace safe.

"Just so you know one wrong move and you get an arrow in the ass" Daryl said to the kid

"Just gonna take the arrow out of my ass and shove it up yours" he said "Just so you know"

"Geeze" Rick said and Alice went over and kicked the kid. "Alice"

"What my foot slipped" she said and saw a small smirk on Daryl face "And just so you know punk, this machete here, has a spot with your name on it" the kid slightly paled as Alice took out the machete and pointed to a spot on the blade. "Yup right here"


End file.
